The Reunion
by be-nice-to-nerds
Summary: A response to spinkle22's reunion challenge. Alpha Force reunite after ten years. But each member is hiding a secret, and it's up to Paulo to hold the team together when danger strikes... DISCONTINUED UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE
1. Chapter 1

**This is a response to spinkle22's challenge.**

**Alpha Force meet again after 10 years… but some of them have changed dramatically.**

**The Reunion**

"Alex, relax. It'll be fine." Mary Craig slid an arm around her husband's waist and squeezed it gently.

Alex pushed a lock of blond hair out of his blue-grey eyes. "I know, but I haven't seen them in ten years… and shouldn't they be here by now?"

Mary understood her husband's nervousness, but before she could say anything a man with brown hair stepped out of a polished black car and waved at them.

"Hex!" exclaimed Alex. "It's been so long…"

Hex nodded somberly. He looked just like the Northumbrian remembered him, but something had changed. This Hex was decked out in a black suit with mirrored sunglasses that made it impossible to see those bright green eyes, and the way he carried himself was different. His walk seemed more assured of himself, and he had the air of an accomplished fighter. Maybe…

But no. That was impossible. Hex worked in a bank now, designing software to keep hackers like himself out.

Before Alex could muse any longer, another familiar face appeared.

Li Cheong hadn't been changed at all by the years. Her small Anglo-Chinese face still radiated excitement and pent up energy. As she bounded over to the group, a grin lit up her face as she saw Mary.

"Well Alex, looks like you got lucky. I'm Li by the way."

"The names Bond, James Bond" joked Alex's wife.

Hex frowned. It was a tiny expression, so small that it was nearly impossible to catch. Alex saw it however, and made a mental note of the fact. Something was definitely different about Hex.

"How did you know she wasn't mine?" asked Hex, although he already knew the answer.

"It's obvious!" grinned Li, and for a moment Hex was caught in another time, another moment more than ten years ago.

"Hex would never willingly marry someone unless her name was Amber Middleton."

The old Hex would have protested, or made a scathing remark; the new one simply smiled to himself and flicked his eyes to look over Li's shoulder.

The world champion free climber and martial arts _sensei _looked back, but nobody was there.

The former hacker's smug look returned for a moment, but was quickly gone, Hex's face returning to its emotionless mask.

Another man walked up to the group, a tall Argentinean.

"Paulo!" squealed Li, throwing her arms around him.

Paulo returned the hug affectionately, but gave Alex a questioning glance.

Alex quickly caught on as to the object of his curiosity.

"Oh… Paulo, this is Mary, my wife."

Paulo held out his hand, and Mary took it.

"Nice to meet you Mary, I'm Paulo." His accent was almost flawless; hinting of a life spent traveling the world.

Paulo was a pilot, one of the militaries best. It had taken weeks of campaigning before his bosses would let him have this time off.

Alex envied him for that, remembering his childhood dream of being in the army.

Hex, surprisingly, was the one who broke the silence.

"Sorry to break the moment but we have to go now; Amber said she'd meet us at the hotel."

Amber was the successful owner of Middleton software, and had of course been the one to suggest and fund their little reunion.

They had all been eager when she suggested it, via a little used email connection.

It had taken a while for Hex and Paulo to let their bosses give them time off work, but the cogs had fallen into place and here they were, Alpha Force about to reunite for the first time in ten years.

Paulo climbed into the clean black car behind Hex while Li joined Alex and Mary in their battered land rover.

He looked curiously at all the extra features Hex seemed to have in his car, but he blinked and all the knobs and buttons were gone, replaced by an ordinary dashboard. Paulo wondered if he had dreamt the whole thing, after all he was still a bit jetlagged.

Yes, that must be it.

Hex reached over and turned the radio on, and the sleek black car zoomed out of the car park and into the streets of London.

Alpha Force was about to be complete once more…

**So that's it, my first chapter. In the next one we'll meet Amber and learn a bit more about the mysterious Hex. **

**It'll probably be up soon.**

**But until then, adios! **


	2. Chapter 2

**Thanks to everyone who reviewed.**

**Chapter 2**

The muddy land rover pulled up outside the five star hotel and three people clambered out and grabbed their luggage.

Alex was in the lead but a bit unsure of himself – he was country boy and not used to all this glamour.

Li and Mary followed him up the polished marble steps, talking animatedly. They were discussing the finer points of a rare species of fish.

Waiting for the trio stood one of the richest people in the world, Amber Middleton.

She hugged Li, and shook hands with Alex and Mary.

"Come on through… But where are Hex and Paulo? Don't tell me they couldn't make it?"

Amber frowned worriedly. She would never admit it to anyone, but she was really looking forward to seeing Hex again…

Alex looked at his watch. "I have no idea. We stopped to refuel and got a bit lost… They should have reached here by now…"

Li voiced the question that was on everyone's mind.

"Where the hell are they?"

* * *

A sleek black car sped through the streets of London.

Music echoed through the speakers, and Paulo lolled in his chair, fast asleep.

He really was jetlagged…

However the Argentinean was rudely awakened when Hex yanked hard on the steering wheel, jerking the car into a side street.

"_Dios _Hex! What the hell was that for?"

The banker's voice was grim. "We're being followed."

Sure enough, a car was at their tail. A blue Honda.

"I'm going to try and lose them. Hold on!"

Hex skillfully steered the car at breakneck speeds through the tangled web of streets, but the Honda was always right behind them

Suddenly he caught a glance in the rear view mirror.

"Paulo! Get down"

Seconds later, a bullet grazed past his ear, shattering the windscreen.

Paulo closed his eyes and prayed that Hex could get them out of this.

* * *

A very battered black car stopped in a back alley somewhere.

"I think we've lost them", said Paulo, relived.

Hex nodded. "Damn!" he muttered. "Should have been more careful…"

"Where to now? The hotel?"

Hex shook his head. "No way. It'll be too dangerous. Those people probably wanted to see where Amber is so they can assassinate her. And the hotel wouldn't be very safe anyway. I know somewhere else we can go…"

"Where?" asked the pilot.

"Oh, no where very important…."

Paulo looked on suspiciously. There was something not right about Hex, but he couldn't put his finger on it…

* * *

At the hotel grand grandiose, Amber looked very worried.

It had been over an hour since Alex and Li had arrived and yet there had been no sign of Hex or Paulo.

Amber knew firsthand how dangerous these streets could be, and she knew Hex was more than aware of it too. After all, he had grown up here.

So where on earth could they be?

* * *

The Royal and General bank was the last place you would expect to find a car with its windows smashed, looking like it had just been through the wars. But there it was, resting in the staff entrance, with its driver drumming his fingers impatiently on the steering wheel.

"What do you want?" asked the guard there, looking suspiciously at Paulo.

"I'm here to report a robbery" responded Hex.

"What about him?"

"Oh, Paulo's with me"

The guard looked unconvinced.

"ID?"

Hex fished around in his wallet for a few seconds before pulling out an ordinary driver's license.

The guard appeared satisfied with it and motioned for them to go on through.

Paulo was shocked at what he had seen. In the Army he had been forced to memorize the difference between different security services ID cards and civilians ID.

What he had seen on Hex's was two random letters, M, 5, four random numbers, 1, and 5.

MI5.


	3. Chapter 3

**Thank you to all the lovely reviewers. Did anyone pick up the Alex Rider reference in the last chapter?**

**Chapter 3**

Still reeling with shock, Paulo furtively followed Hex through the building of the 'bank'. He appreciated the great risk his friend had gone through to bring him here, but he was also worried. What if the powers that be decided to kill him? Not only was Paulo not MI5, he also worked for a different country.

He got brought back down to earth as Hex stopped abruptly, nearly walking into the hacker.

"What the…"

Hex glared at him. Or at least, Paulo thought he did. It was hard to see the secret agents eyes through those mirrored glasses. He wondered if that was why his old friend wore them.

"Keep your voice down!" Hex didn't particularly feel like giving his boss more to complain about – he was already walking on thin ice for bringing Paulo here. It wasn't like he had had a choice though – it had been either bring Paulo or let one, or both of them die. Obviously, he had chosen the former option.

His watch beeped. The hacker glanced down at it – and swore. Paulo glanced at him questioningly.

"We are supposed to be at my boss' office – now.", explained Hex, who had read the pilots expression perfectly.

By the look on his face, Paulo could tell that this boss was bad news. _Is it policy for government officials to always be grumpy? _He asked himself ruefully, remembering his first boss and all the books he had read as a child.

While he had been engrossed in thought, Hex had taken off down the hall at nearly superhuman speed.

Paulo followed him, but inside he was filled with a growing sense of dread.

* * *

The other three members of alpha force were nearly beside themselves with worry. Amber and Li were both pacing so furiously that Alex thought they had started an impromptu pacing race.

He frowned. Despite the unworried facade that he put on, Alex was very, very concerned. He knew Hex and Paulo… well, he thought he still did, and it wasn't like either of them to keep the others worried like they were doing now.

"Paulo…. Hex…", He whispered softly. "What have you done to yourselves?"

* * *

Hex looked down at his feet as his boss raged on.

Deciding that there was no point letting him rant on any longer, Hex decided to put his boss – and usually friend – out of his misery.

"Come on Fearless leader, what else was I supposed to do? Leave Paulo out there to die? You where one of the people who wanted to recruit me – and as I recall, you tried to recruit the others as well. You know how well we work together."

"Hex!' exclaimed his boss, also commonly known as johnsmith on the internet. "You know that's classified information. Slip ups like that are the exact reason you aren't a higher ranking agent."

He paused for effect, while Paulo looked on in quiet and well concealed amusement.

"Anyway, how did you know we tried to recruit the others? I don't remember giving you that information."

"Come on, you didn't only recruit me for my looks you know. I do know how to hack into MI5 files. After all, you taught me."

Paulo had to smile at that. Hex admitting that he still had to learn, or had had to be taught… now that was a first. He wished he had a camera with him so he could record it. Latter, he would have shown it to Li and the two of them would have had a good laugh at their friend's expense.

His grin quickly turned into a frown as both the secret agents turned their gazes onto him. The pilot attempted his trademark innocent grin, but failed spectacularly.

"So", said Hex's boss, "What shall we do with him?"

Paulo squirmed nervously in his seat.

"Boss, we might need him. Paulo and I got followed and attacked for a reason. They might be after either of us – or after Alex, Li or Amber. We should use him before we do anything about him."

Paulo was torn between the feeling of relief that they wouldn't do anything to him and betrayal for hearing one of his best friends speak about him like he was a tool to be used and then discarded.

"True…" Johnsmith seemed to be deep in thought. "Fine. We can give him a chance and send you two back on your way. But, Paulo, not a word to anyone about this unless I give you the go a head."

Paulo nodded, grateful that they weren't going to do something bad to him to keep him quiet.

"Hex. Show him the ropes."

Hex nodded, expressionless. He got up and Paulo made to follow him.

"Come on", Hex told him "All we need to do is get me a new car and you some basic gadgets."

Paulo's face lit up.

"Gadgets? You have gadgets?"

Hex had to smile at the look on Paulo's face.

"Yeah, we get gadgets. But not any like in the movies. We get a communicator and maybe a couple of specialized items, depending on what you are doing." The hacker paused. This had the effect of making him look very, very menancing. "And _you _aren't getting any other than a com-link. This is classified. We'll probably need to test our mind-wiping machine on you."

Paulo gulped. His hopes for the future had just plummeted.

**I am so, so sorry for a) not updating earlier. We had midyear exams, so I had to study for them. I also ****apologize for b) the extreme unrealisticness (is that even a word?) of this chapter. However, this was the only way I could go.**

**Till me next (hope fully quicker) update**

**BNTN**


	4. Chapter 4

"How did you become a member of MI5?" Paulo asked Hex.

The two of them were driving to the hotel in a replacement car. Or rather, Paulo was driving. Supposedly, it was because every time Hex drove something happened, but they both knew that Paulo just wanted a go at driving the state-of-the-art, MI5 issue only car.

"It's a long story." replied Hex.

The Argentinean shrugged. "Well, we've got time"

"Ok. After we parted ways for the last time, I tried to go back to university. Unfortunately, I found university every bit as boring and useless as school…"

_Hex sat in a lecture theatre, dozing off. __He was bored witless._

_After a lot of persuasion from his mother, Hex had opted to take a computer sciences course. What no one (other than Hex, supposedly) had anticipated was the fact that he already knew everything in the curriculum and a lot more besides._

_Take now for instance. The lecturer was rambling on about how Fortran was a much better code than C+ for such-and-such circumstances when Hex knew that both of them were incredibly clumsy tools for such a situation. He could name ten other programming languages that would work better. __**(1)**_

_No, Hex had much be__tter things to do with his time._

_He pulled out his palmtop and began to type…_

"…The only class I even remotely enjoyed was mathematics. I started hacking into more and more difficult places. One day I got a nasty shock…"

"_Hex! Hex! Wake up!" Hex groggily looked up. His mother was shaking him awake._

"_Mum, its two-bloody-thirty in the morning! What is it!"_

_His mother's face was pale, and Hex immediately felt sorry for speaking to her curtly. His mother wouldn't wake him up if it wasn't urgent._

"_It's Ben, Hex. His lungs have played up again. He's in the hospital on life support…"_

"…It turned out that Ben's lung had partially collapsed again. He was stuck on life support, and to get him off he needed surgery. We're a poor family. We would never have been able to afford to pay for what he needed." **(2) **

Paulo could see where Hex was going with this.

"You stole some money, didn't you? You needed to pay for your brother's operation, so you hacked into a bank and got money."

"Well, sort of." Hex looked decidedly uncomfortable. "There's more to the story than that…"

"_Mr Brown, I'm sorry to say that we will have to take your brother off life support soon." The official who brought the news looked scared, as if he knew what would happen next.__**(3)**_

_Then again, he probably did – he'd had to do this before._

"_What! You can't just take him off like that! Would you care to explain to me why exactly?" Hex's tone was like ice._

"_Well sir, you see, The American ambassador has just fallen critically ill. He's in on another bed with life support but there's a pop star who needs an operation in 52 hours, and we don't have enough beds."_

_If looks could kill, the official would be dead three times over. "I see. So, what can we do to keep my brother alive?"_

_Now, the small man got a crafty look in his eye. "Well, sir, we have a gap for operations in about 36 hours. If you pay for the operation – and a little bonus, of course – we could get your brother fixed and off life support in a matter of two days."_

_Hex considered this for a moment. He didn't like this – and there was no way that he could get the money in time – but it wasn't like he had an option._

"_Fine." He said…_

"… I needed money to save Ben. Money that I didn't have. Mum – well, we were on a benefit, it was all she could do to keep us alive. Dad pitched in a little, but it was still nowhere near enough. So, what could I do?"

It was a rhetorical question, but Paulo answered it anyway.

"You hacked into a bank or something."

Hex got a proud look on his face.

"So close, yet so far. I hacked into Fort Knox." **(4)**

Paulo whistled.

Ignoring him, Hex continued. "You're probably wondering why, when it doesn't hold any virtual money I can transfer easily. Well, to today I still don't know why. Maybe I just wanted to show off. Maybe I was so mad at the American's for killing my brother that I didn't care what happened to them. Terrorists could get in while the security was off for all I cared."

"Meanwhile, I hacked into lots of other bank accounts. I took a bit from the American ambassador, I hacked into the white house and into Paris Hilton's bank account. It's not like they needed the money, anyway."

"By then, I had worked myself into a rage. I hacked into the American national grid and turned out all the power – on a cold winter night. The only places I kept going spelt 'Murderers' with their lights, if you looked at them with a birds eye view."

"That was my mistake. I was so cocky that I forgot to wipe my traces completely. There are only five people in the world who could have traced that. I'm one, Martin's another and the Americans employ a third. They managed to trace me."

"Luckily, they had to ask the British before they arrested me on our territory. MI5 saw my potential and didn't want to waste me, so they offered me a deal. If I joined MI5, they'd keep the Americans off my back. If I didn't, well…."

"It was a no-brainer, really. I instantly agreed. After a few arguments with the Americans, they convinced them that I was an MI5 member on a training task. We have an agreement with each other to test each other's security, so they managed to convince them that what I was doing was perfectly legal. And because there wasn't anything in the rules about money, I got to keep what I stole." **(5)**

"And that's the end of my story, really. Anything after that is classified."

Paulo looked at his friend in awe. He believe him, but there was something that was bugging him.

"If you played havoc with America's power grid, then why didn't anyone hear about it?"

"Well, that's simple. The Americans didn't want anyone to know that someone had gotten into their system, so they kept it all hushed up. Everyone thought there had been an accident with the power or something."

They had reached the hotel. Paulo pulled up alongside the entrance and they both got out.

**(1) I don't actually know if this is true. I know that they are both different programming languages but that is the extent of my knowledge. I don't even know if there are ten other languages, let alone if any of them are better than the ones I mentioned.**

**(2) As shown in one of the earlier chapters of **_**Revenge**_**. I don't know if this could actually happen. **

**(3) I don't know Hex's real name, so his last name is brown, making his real name Melvin Brown. It has a nice ring to it, dontcha think? **

**(4) This isn't entirely my idea. I got the idea of hacking into Fort Knox by a book I read called **_**Icecore**_**. **

**(5) Again, I don't know if there is an agreement. According to a short story on CHERUB's official website there is though.**


End file.
